"It's got to be a genuine test," defended one government spokeswoman. "We're comfortable with the fact that if people fail the test, they don't get citizenship. The idea is that people demonstrate that... (Index Open)

(Newser)
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Should would-be immigrants to the United Kingdom be required to know the population of Wales when a majority of Britons don't? Only one in seven natives would pass the test required to get a passport, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The government says the bar should be set high even as critics say it's prohibitively so.

"We're comfortable with the fact that if people fail the test, they don't get citizenship," one official said. Demurs one researcher: "The government is looking for ways to reduce the overall numbers of people coming to the UK, and as they can't control EU arrivals in any meaningful way, they have turned their attention to non-EU nations."